A couple of days ago an episode of South Park came on entitled “Make Love, Not Warcraft”. In this episode the creators of South Park give a satirical outlook on the game World of Warcraft. During this episode the boys of South Park are playing World of Warcraft and each time they log on a griefer, a player who plays a game to simply harass other players, kills their characters. He is able to do this because he has continuously played the game since its release and has reached a level previously thought not to be attainable. With this level of power he can basically do whatever he wants in the game. To make a thirty minute long episode short, the boys of South Park, Cartmen, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny, decide to rid the game of this character by “having no life” and continuously playing the game for 21 hours a day for three weeks. They increase their experience points until they reach a level of power that is capable of destroying this character.
This episode gives a satirical approach to the addictive qualities of World of Warcraft and other online social groups and games. Personally, I would find World of Warcraft a lot easier to get addicted to than Second Life. At least in World of Warcraft there is a game to play and set goals for players. I, honestly, did not see the appeal of Second Life while we had our class Halloween party on Friday. There was really nothing fun to do there besides meet new people, but you can do that online without having to pay a subscribers fee (for those that do in order to unlock new aspects of Second Life). It may be that I have to involve myself more in the virtual world of Second Life to see the appeal but at the surface level I did not see the attraction.
Looking reflectively, there has to be some appeal, unbeknown to me, about Second Life seeing how a lot of users are constantly active in the virtual world. Maybe it starts out just like an online dating service; with curiosity. And as they dig more and more in to it, they find more and more they like giving them reasons to stay in this virtual world longer and longer. Whatever the reason is that people get addicted to virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, people need to realize when their virtual world is starting to become the only world that they spend time in.
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So first, you are awesome because you like and/or play WoW.
I loved that episode and laughed hysterically through all of it because i know and realize how addicting that game can be. Parodies really shed light to the effects of online gaming.
Second life was hard for me too, but it was more because the graphics and systems weren't as easy to use as world of warcraft. Just think how many more people might use Second Life if it was as cool as WoW.
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